As we approach 2025, plenty of people will be writing about goals, hopes and dreams for 2025. While these can be insightful and inspiring, I want to offer a challenge to the posture we ought to take as Christians who aim to live intentionally in the manner the historical Jesus would have intended. What follows are five postures to consider as we enter 2025.
A Christian Response to the Upcoming Presidential Inauguration
Throughout 2024, I regularly commented on how Jesus was Jewish. He had a Jewish history that included a generational trauma from a millennium that Jewish people faced from a variety of invaders and oppressors. In Jesus’ time, it was the Romans. Jesus also had a classic Jewish education that seemingly put him at odds with his Jewish religious officials towards the end of his life. Finally, Jesus’ youthful ambition and later adult maturity was demonstrated in the boldness he displayed when calling out the hypocritical behaviors of his countrymen and religious officials. It is this that we see an example we ought to consider as we embark on a what appears to be an upcoming tumultuous time in the United States and abroad.
A lot has been said both positive and negative about the upcoming US President and his cabinet. A lot also has been said about the current state of affairs with the Christian church in the United States. Jesus throughout his life demonstrated the Stoic virtue of courage and temperance when he carefully calculated his responses to both the religious and political systems of his time. The writers of his story show us the posture we must take. They wrote with intentionality to demonstrate to the readers then how powerful and counter cultural Jesus’ message was. We too in 2025 and beyond must learn to demonstrate the same virtues of temperance and courage to stand up for the least in our communities and hypocritical behavior in our churches.
Radical Hospitality
As mentioned above, Jesus was Jewish, and it is no surprise that there are a lot of stories about Jesus demonstrating hospitality. Hospitality is a core theme in Judaism. In time where we want to scapegoat all our problems on immigrants and others who do not fit into our societal mold, we need to be more like Jesus and our Jewish cousins and demonstrate more radical hospitality.
In Judaism, “showing hospitality (hakhnasat orchim) to guests is considered a mitzvah. When one knows of strangers who are hungry or need a place to relax, it becomes a legal obligation. Some rabbis consider hakhnasat orchim (literally the “bringing in of strangers”) to be a part of gemilut hasadim (giving of loving kindness).”
The Christian Old Testament and the Jewish Torah share the same stories and the first time hospitality is displayed in the story of the three wanders in Genesis 18:1-5. The first time hospitality is displayed in the Torah happens when Abraham invites the three wanderers from Mamre to relax while he brings them water and food. This is not a standalone story; the bible is full of stories of hospitality and how it is rewarded.
In the Jewish Talmud and the Christian Bible, we are taught that a house is to always be open and welcoming to strangers. “In the Torah it affirms that Abraham always kept all four sides of his tent open, for guests to easily enter. The opening of one’s doors is why at the Seder on Passover an invitation is delivered to the hungry and needy. It is read in the Hagadah, “Whosoever is in need let him come and eat” (Ta’anit 20b). During the Middle Ages the custom arose of providing a guest house (bet hakhnasat orehim) for the poor; this would later be called hekdesh (“sanctuary”).”
Our Christian response then is not to get rid of those we do not want, but to reform how we make room for those who arrive. It is to reform our ways of thinking about those people who do not fit our old society norms sexually or gender wise. It is to understand that Young, Old, Male and Female all have a voice and place at our table.
Spiritually Intentional
What is a prayerful life. What does it mean to pray without ceasing? Jesus tells us to pray quietly. He also demonstrates intentionality in his spiritual and prayer experiences. I have never been a fan of the long, “Just God or Just Jesus” prayers.
Let us be more spiritually intentional in 2025. In 2022, I took a half a year long class on spiritual literacy through the group, Spirituality and Practice established by Mary Ann and Frederic Brussat to help seekers find resources to deepen their spiritual journey.
When we move beyond the myth surrounding Christianity, and look intentionally at the practices of Jesus, Paul and later the early Church fathers and mothers, we see a depth to their spirituality that transcends the ego. When we let our ego run our faith, we begin to create a faith about a person, in the case of Jesus, a faith about Jesus or in the case of popular TV preacher, the faith about Jesus interpreted through the persona of the preacher.
A spiritually intentional faith is one where we move with the Holy Spirit and allow our inner heart mind to be open to the leanings of the Spirit. We let go of our ego.
Cultivate a Peaceful Heart
In July 2024, I offered these words at the end of a post I wrote then:
Living a peaceful life does not necessarily mean being nonviolent. Living a peaceful life also means cultivating peace in the little things. In doing so, these little things will add up to great amounts of peace and tranquility in our lives. In my therapy practice, I am always talking about cultivating a healthy “I don’t care” attitude. It is understood we suffer because we cling. By integrating these practices into our daily lives, we transform both ourselves and the world around us. Taking active steps daily towards a peaceful life will eventually help us to find peace in every step. Peace in our lives is an achievable goal, but one that needs to be practiced daily.
A deer ran into me yesterday. First time in my driving experience. I would have been more upset if I had hit the deer, instead, the deer came out of the woods and broadsided me on my front passenger quarter panel. After I got the insurance stuff settled, I went to the rental place to pick up the car. There was another customer there who clearly was having a worse day than me. He was really giving the attendant a lot of static. I turned to my attendant and just got after getting things settled. I offered to him, that it was what it was. Crying about it or being upset doesn’t change the fact that my car is broken.
In 2025, I challenge us all to be as nice as Jesus. Peace starts with us. Intentionally spend the beginning of day considering how to cultivate peace in your day.
Be More Intentional about Recognizing the Indwelling Presence of God in Each of Us.
“Each of us is a work-in-progress. The spiritual practice of you challenges us to become all we are meant to be as God’s beloved sons and daughters. We are, after all, co-creators of the Great Work of the universe. By attuning ourselves to what in different traditions has been called the image of God, the everlasting soul, or the higher self, we are able to fulfill our mission in life.”
In the late 90’s, we used to sing or talk about how we had the fingerprints of God all over us. Today, I consider a deepr relationship. We are all embodied spirits with God’s presence within us. We are more that the image of God, we are God’s beloved and we must reflect daily on the words from Genesis where are told that we were very good.
In 2025, pay less attention to the influencers trying to convince you they are “natty” or that you need to wear this product or drink this drink to be something. You are special just the way you are, the way God intended you to be.
Here is to 2025, what may be, what probably won’t be, it does not matter, it is life, let us embrace it with a calm heart, a curious mind and the knowledge that the sun will rise and set regardless how disrupted life gets.
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